Yale Catches, Runs Away From Central At CT6

Mike Anthony, manthony@courant.com

BRIDGEPORT – Yale trailed Central Connecticut for most of the first half and well into the second half Saturday and coach James Jones sensed that his players were pressing, playing as if they were trying to score seven points at a time.

All it took for the Bulldogs to get going was for them to bottom out. The Central lead grew to 17 with just over 14 minutes remaining, and then Yale got to work, owning the rest of the game and cruising to a 93-77 victory in the middle game of the Connecticut 6 Classic at Webster Bank Arena.

“To start the second half, we felt like we had to get it back on one possession,” Jone said. “Then the lead ballooned to 17 and guys calmed down.”

Central led 63-46 with 14:12 remaining. The Blue Devils were then outscored 18-1 over the next 6:53, leading to a 64-64 tie. The run continued, Yale outscoring Central 32-6 for a 78-69 lead, and 47-14 to the final buzzer.

“I thought we got tired and I thought we lost our composure,” Central coach Howie Dickenman said. “I thought the intensity was good, the effort was good, but we got beat by a better team. They did not lose their composure. They maintained their cool.”

Justin Sears had 26 points, 16 in the second half, 13 rebounds and four blocks. He led the way for a bigger Yale team that found ways to utilize its size advantage both inside and in its perimeter defense of Central’s Kyle Vinales.

Vinales had 30 points, the eighth time in his career he has reached 30, but just six in the second half after scoring 24 on 9 of 15 shooting in the first.

“He made jump shot after jump shot,” Jones said. “He's a tremendous, tremendous player and we did a poor job of finding out where he was. He played the entire first half and that's going to where you down a little bit. Now he's trying to chase guys around and you hope that tires you out. One great thing about our team is we have a lot of depth.”

Vinales was 2-for-8 in the second half, when Central was outscored 53-30.

“The shots I was making and taking in the first half, I wasn't getting in the second half,” Vinales said. “So credit to Yale for making adjustments.”

Malcolm McMillan and Matt Hunter each had 11 points for Central, which plays Wednesday at Purdue. Juwan Newmen had 10 points and eight rebounds in his first game for Central. The Bulldogs paid closer attention to Vinales in the second, double-teaming him at times. Dickenman has said it is no longer ideal for Vinales to play 38-plus minutes like he did last season, but didn’t take him out of the game until the final minute.

“Every time Kyle shoots the basketball, I expect it to go in and Kyle expects it to go in,” Dickenman said. “In the first half, he was scoring at win, throwing up jump shots, driving to the basket. But they put a lock on him and he pressed a little bit. We need him, but they were all around him. They took advantage of their size on him.”

Sears only got stronger as he went. He made 10 of 17 shots. Support came from Armani Cotton (17 points, six rebounds) and Javier Duren (16, seven).

“At the end of the game, Coach wrote the word ‘Trust’ on the board,” Sears said. “We just have to trust our teammates, trust our offense.”